


The Magic Job

by bessemerprocess



Series: Thieves and Wizards [1]
Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, Leverage
Genre: Community: purimgifts, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-24
Updated: 2009-03-24
Packaged: 2017-10-02 20:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bessemerprocess/pseuds/bessemerprocess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Harry Dresden, Wizard," Parker says again, reading from the phone book. "He's in the phone book?"</p><p>"I offered to set him up a website last time we worked together, but Harry and computers just don't mix," Hardison explains.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Magic Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ryuutchi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryuutchi/gifts).



> Written for ryuutchi for purimgifts. Thanks to trexsandwich for the beta!

"Harry Dresden, Wizard," Parker says again, reading from the phone book. "He's in the phone book?"

"I offered to set him up a website last time we worked together, but Harry and computers just don't mix," Hardison explains.

"Wizard?" Parker says.

"Oh, that. He does magic. Finds things, kills demons, fights for the underdog, that sort of thing," Hardison says without blinking.

Parker simply raises an eyebrow. "We're not even supposed to be in the same country and you brought me in to help a wizard?"

"Do you think I'd be here if it wasn't important? It's Purim. I could be eating cookies right now. You don't have to believe. Just play along," Hardison says.

"Okay."

"And leave your com and cell and anything else electronic in the van. Harry destroys electronics just by standing near them."

"Okay," Parker says, and pulls out her com, phone, and a few gadgets Hardison knows she didn't get from him.

***

Alec Hardison has been doing tech work for Harry Dresden since before he had an FBI file. Harry had saved his teen-aged self from a hungry vampire, and Hardison had repaid him by making it possible for his upstairs neighbors to get electricity uninterrupted by bursts of magic. The magical insulation turned out to work well for shielding electronics from other interference and had gotten Hardison one of his very few honest paychecks.

Harry had tried to set Hardison on a path to an legal lifestyle, but it had been too late by that point. It didn't stop Harry from bringing him in to deal with technology Harry couldn't.

***

Hardison knocks hard on the warped steel door, once, twice, and then stands back and waits.

The door opens to reveal a teen-aged girl, and before Hardison can be confused, she yells towards the back of the basement apartment, "Harry, your friends are here!" and lets them in.

"I'm Molly," she says and sticks out a hand towards Parker.

Parker looks her over, head tilted to the side before taking her hand and shaking it once. "Parker."

Mouse trots up as they enter, sniffing Hardison once, and then moving on to Parker.

"Mouse, Parker. Parker, Mouse," Hardison says by way of introduction.

Mouse lets out a doggy sigh, licks Parker's hand and promptly flops down to have his belly rubbed.

"I think Mouse has just vouched for your friend, Alec," Harry says with a smile as Parker pets Mouse.

***

"He's like Death of Electronics," says Hardison as Parker holds up her sparking digital wristwatch after shaking hands with Harry. "Like Death of Rats... Discworld... Terry Pratchett? No? You guys need to read more."

"My watch!" Parker holds the offending piece of electronics by the strap.

"I'll steal you a new one when we're done here," Hardison promises. Sergeant Murphy glares at him from across the room. Hardison reminds himself it's probably not the best idea to say 'steal' in front of a cop.

Parker nods, satisfied, and turns her attention back to the other people in the room.

"So what do you need my help with, Harry?" Hardison asks. In addition to Harry and Molly, a diminutive police officer named Murphy, a tall, lanky guy who should be out modeling named Thomas, and a much shorter fellow named Fix have joined them. Hardison is pretty good at spotting oddities these days, and he'd say that Murphy was the only standard human in the group.

"Evil wizard. Calls himself the Grand Vizier. Pretentious prick. He's got a partner, totally non-magical, but tech savvy in ways we just can't compete with," Harry explains. "He's gotten a hold of something the Summer Queen wants back. Except that it seems if I go in and blow all the power we'll have to cut our way through not only a state of the art vault, but also 2 feet of iron circa 1870 bank vault. Molly can get you through the magical defenses, and she's much less likely to blow the electrical systems than I am. If you can get into the vault, the rest of us will take care of the Grand Visier and his tech guy."

"So what exactly are we stealing?" Parker asks.

"That's part of the fun. All I know is that it's in an 10" by 8" bundle and the Grand Vizier can use whatever's inside to enslave all magic users to his will," Harry says with a slight shudder.

"And we're returning it to the Summer Queen?" Hardison asks skeptically.

"It's a long story, but I've been assured by reliable sources that it has to be returned to the Summer Queen," Harry says in a voice that brooks no argument.

***

Hardison tends to like his plans down to the bullet points, but Harry's always been more of a roll with the punches kind of guy. They prep, and it feels almost familiar to him, like he's gotten used to working with a team. He's nervous. These are new people, not his trusted team, and going up against anyone who is strong enough or smart enough to steal from the fey is worrisome. Hardison knows better than to tangle with the Courts: the fey are wilier than tax lawyers when it comes to loopholes and more relentless than any Mountie.

Maybe not in terms of weapons: Murphy cleans her gun. Thomas holsters another two guns and throws a sword on his back. Fix stands ready, statue still and focused, but he's got an axe sized for a much bigger man strapped to his back. Harry, on the other hand, is fidgety, going over the plan with Molly twice before he sends her off to join them in the car.

"Sorry Harry is being so overprotective," Molly says with a wave of her hand. She's in the back seat and she seems to be terribly excited to be included in the plan.

"He didn't do any magic," Parker says, clearly disappointed in Harry. "But I like his dog."

"I have a feeling we'll see some magic flying by the time this is over," Hardison says. He's seen Harry work on a handful of occasions, and he's seen Harry blow people off their feet with magic gusts of wind.

***

They are going through the back door, while team Dresden goes straight up the front. Murphy has a comm, and Hardison's hoping that it will last through whatever magic gets thrown around up there. It's some of his best work and he'd hate for it to go to waste.

The job itself goes smoothly, which is a change for Hardison. Molly gets them through the magical defenses just as advertised, and then waits at the end of the hall for Hardison and Parker to work their magic. Parker gets them down the hall unseen. It's not hard, there is only one camera and it's easily looped. Hardison had knocked out the motion detectors from the car.

The intel is spot on. An ancient bank vault resides at the end of the hall. "This is like history. They don't make vaults like this anymore," Parker says before cracking the safe with only a stethoscope.

Parker opens the vault door with a flourish, revealing an smaller, more modern safe bolted inside.

Hardison laughs. "They couldn't spring for something that would be challenging?" Five minutes later the safe is open.

"Molly!" Parker yells down the hall. The girl comes bounding down the hall with a smile. She does a quick check of the safe, for booby traps, Hardison supposes, and then carefully lifts out the bundle with both hands. "We're good."

"So," Parker says casually. "What's in the bundle?"

Molly shakes her head. "I don't know either. Something the Queen of Summer wanted back so badly that she's willing to be indebted to Harry again."

Hardison relays the message to Murphy via static-y comms.

"Good. Meet us on the back steps," Murphy says.

***

Out on the steps, Harry and Thomas are keeping watch over two bound men. "Meet the Grand Vizier," Harry says as the man scowls and spits at Harry's feet. The manacles around his wrists aren't metal, or any other thing Hardison has ever seen before.

"You have it?" Fix asks.

"Yup," Molly says and hands over the bundle to Fix.

Fix smiles tightly, and motions for them to step back. "Okay," he says and then starts murmuring something Hardison doesn't understand. It's even more disconcerting when the view suddenly shifts from industrial Chicago to the vivid greens of Nevernever.

An honor guard is waiting on the other side. Beautiful men and women in fanciful armor peer out of the rift at them. Harry pushes the Grand Visor through and then the henchmen and the fey warriors quickly take control of the prisoners.

Hardison knows he'll never find out what the Summer Queen had wanted so badly that she'd bring in Harry Dresden, and it's probably for the best. Even holding a debt from Summer makes him nervous: the fey always try and sink their claws deeper in you than anyone would want. It doesn't help that the job went so smoothly: it seems off, and Hardison knows that that is a bad sign. He'll have to warn Parker not to make deals with the fey, no matter how shiny or how much money is involved, because he knows that Summer isn't done with them yet.

Fix bows slightly to them. "Thank you. I owe a personal debt to all of you, on top of the debt of Summer." He steps through the rift, and just as suddenly as Nevernever had appeared does it disappear.

"Now that," Parker says, "was magic."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Magic Job [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/376119) by [tinypinkmouse_podfic (tinypinkmouse)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinypinkmouse/pseuds/tinypinkmouse_podfic)




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